Production Planning And Scheduling Manager

Aston Carter•Riverside, CA

10d•$126,000 - $140,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Production Planning and Scheduling Manager oversees the integrated planning function, establishes and leads Sales, Inventory & Operations Planning (SIOP), and develops the processes and ERP data discipline needed to support company growth. This role balances production capacity, inventory, lead times, and operational constraints, translating the master schedule into executable work-center and station-level plans across multiple customer programs and product platforms sharing constrained manufacturing resources. The manager leads planning processes and cross-functional adoption in a dynamic restart and scale-up environment, making decisions amid imperfect data, evolving requirements, and shifting priorities. This is a permanent, fully onsite position based in Riverside, California, with stated hours of 8 AM to 5 PM and potential flexibility. There is no immediate team-management responsibility, though managing a team may become possible as the organization grows.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Business, or a related field.
At least 6 years of experience in production planning, scheduling, capacity planning, or as a master scheduler, with high-level proficiency.
Experience in the automotive or aerospace industries.
Deep understanding of manufacturing processes, production planning, inventory management, material availability, capacity planning, customer delivery commitments, and SIOP.
Strong knowledge of ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle, Epicor, or similar platforms, including planning master data and scheduling logic.
Understanding of low-volume, high-mix, and engineered-to-order manufacturing environments with complex capacity constraints and long planning horizons.
Demonstrated ability to manage capacity constraints, production schedules, material requirements, and manufacturing execution workflows.
Ability to incorporate equipment availability, planned downtime, and maintenance constraints into production capacity plans in coordination with Facilities and Maintenance.

Nice To Haves

Experience with advanced Excel and ERP reporting tools for scenario planning and decision-making.
Strong leadership skills to guide cross-functional adoption of planning processes and resolve barriers with functional leaders.

Responsibilities

Own and manage the master production schedule, aligning customer backlog and demand forecasts with capacity, material availability, operational constraints, and delivery commitments.
Establish and lead the SIOP process, including demand and capacity assumptions, scenario recommendations, decision records, and action follow-through; obtain leadership approval for major commercial, spending, and capacity trade-offs.
Partner with Sales, Engineering, Supply Chain, Materials, Production, Quality, and Finance to maintain alignment around a single integrated plan.
Develop production ramp scenarios covering customer build-slot allocation, model and propulsion mix, labor requirements, station capacity and buffers, alternative production rates, and delivery impacts.
Establish schedule approval and change-control rules, including a protected near-term schedule; manage changes within delegated authority and escalate conflicts affecting customer commitments, spending, or capacity to the VP of Operations with recommended options.
Ensure scheduling activities support safety, quality, and regulatory requirements.
Own the Clear-to-Build process, ensuring schedules released to the production floor have required customer configuration approvals, engineering releases, BOMs and drawings, engineering change incorporation, material availability, tooling, labor and station capacity, and applicable quality requirements.
Establish readiness signoffs from responsible functions, including Procurement confirmation of critical material commitments.
Translate the master schedule into work-center and station-level execution plans that support production flow and floor-level accountability.
Verify planning-critical BOM and lead-time inputs with Engineering and Procurement, assign discrepancies to responsible data owners, and drive timely resolution to prevent shortages, schedule disruptions, and production delays.
Establish ERP planning data standards and validation routines for BOMs, routings, lead times, calendars, and planning parameters with responsible functions.
Serve as planning lead for Epicor implementation, stabilization, and ongoing improvement, ensuring planning logic reflects operational reality.
Use advanced Excel and ERP reporting tools to support scenario planning and decision-making.
Serve as the escalation point for complex scheduling and production planning issues.
Use reporting, capacity modeling, and scenario analysis to identify bottlenecks, constraints, schedule risks, and recovery opportunities.
Provide early warning of schedule, procurement, and cross-program risks and communicate data-driven recommendations to management and internal stakeholders.
Establish the weekly planning performance review within the Operations management operating system.
Design and implement planning processes, standard work, meeting cadences, responsibilities, escalation rules, and a phased improvement roadmap to support growth.
Lead cross-functional adoption of planning processes, resolve barriers with functional leaders, and use performance results to reduce delays, improve flow, and increase schedule reliability.
Maintain direct responsibility for integrated master schedules across multiple customer programs and product platforms sharing constrained manufacturing resources.
Balance customer, operational, and business priorities and use data to challenge infeasible commitments.